The curious case of the disappearing Polish S
One keyboard bug three decades in the making. (New version of an essay originally posted in February 2015. 1,800 words.)
Aresluna
A feed of Marcin Wichary’s writing.
Latest posts
Show your hands honor for the strange power they bring you
On designing finger-friendly interactions. (7,700 words. 38 playgrounds.)
Key, in sight
A guide, of sorts, to keyboard customization. (9,400 words.)
Unsung
A new blog on software craft and quality. Subscribe via RSS or receive an email digest every Friday.
System shock
A story of a 25-year-old font coming back with a vengeance. (New version of an essay originally posted in October 2015. 1,100 words.)
UX books not written by white men
A crowdsourced list of UX books
I don’t know what is Apple’s endgame for the Fn/Globe key, and I’m not sure Apple knows either
The origin and the evolution of the most confusing modifier key
Fav tech museums
A photo essay of 20-something best tech museums I’ve been to… and three bad ones.
The Clock
In the 1980s, the dead space between our television programs was filled with… a clock.
The primitive tortureboard
Untangling the myths and mysteries of Dvorak and QWERTY. (First online appearance of a chapter originally published in printed form in December 2023. 8,000 words. 33 photos.)
The new homepage
I finally updated my homepage! It’s not really flashy in any way, but it has a lot of links to what I’ve done over the last years. As part of it, I restored some of my “classic” Twitter and other social media threads, too. If you like my work, chances are you will find here something you enjoy.
The day Return became Enter
A deep dive into the convoluted and fascinating story of one of the most important keys on the keyboard. (First online appearance of an essay originally published in printed form in December 2023. 3,100 words. 35 photos.)
Frame of preference
A story of early Mac settings told by a bunch of emulators. (8,800 words. 10 emulators.)
Steve Jobs, Jef Raskin, and the first great war for your thumbs
On some brilliant, idiosyncratic, and often ill-fated gambits to transform computer input. (New version of an essay originally posted in March 2023. 3,400 words.)
A hacker’s guide to bending the universe
If you're going to conquer the world, you can't let a broken CRT monitor stand in your way. (New version of an essay originally posted in March 2016. 3,200 words.)
In the footsteps of Robert Moses
Roadtripping across the bridges, highways, and parks of America’s most controversial urban planner. (New version of a photoessay originally posted in June 2014. 7,000 words, 100 photos.)
Seesaws for giants
Chasing Chicago’s movable bridges. (New version of a photoessay originally posted in August 2014. 900 words, 50 photos.)
The hardest working font in Manhattan
A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today. (6,100 words, 600 photos.)